Recycling in Seattle made easier, likely more expensive

Published 10:00 pm, Monday, March 31, 2008

This time next year, city leaders say, Seattle residents will be able to toss meat and dairy scraps into yard-waste containers and quit separating recyclable materials under new solid-waste contracts.

The Seattle City Council approved the contracts Monday with a unanimous vote. Council President Richard Conlin, who wrote the "Zero Waste" initiative that led to the contracts, praised it for helping reduce Seattle's carbon footprint.

"Table scraps will no longer be waste, but instead become a resource for the city's gardens," he said.

However, Seattleites will likely see their garbage bill increase substantially with the Earth-friendly services.

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In February, Tim Croll, the city's solid-waste director, told the Seattle P-I that the new services will be accompanied by a garbage-rate increase "definitely over 10 percent." Last fall, the city adopted a 6.7 percent increase.

The contracts approved Monday did not specify rate increases, and Seattle Public Utilities spokesman Andy Ryan said a rate study will likely begin in May. The council is expected to vote on a new rate proposal in June, he said.

"Most of the rate increase is due to inflation," Conlin said. "Secondly, if there is a rate increase, basically what people are getting is a much better service and a service that really is in accord with our environmental values. ... I think people really are getting a significant benefit."

For a typical single-family home using a 32-gallon container plus yard-waste pickup, the current cost is $17.65 a month plus $5.30 for yard waste for a total of $22.95 a month.

The new solid-waste collection contracts with Waste Management Inc. and Seattle-based newcomer CleanScrapes bring these changes in garbage and recyclables services:

All single-family homes will be offered weekly instead of the current biweekly food and yard-waste collection, which will include for the first time meat and dairy scraps. The food waste will be turned into compost for local parks and gardens. That is expected to halve the 45,000 tons of food waste annually going to landfills.

Residents who don't pay for yard-waste pickup could dump food scraps into a sealable container.

Recyclable glass no longer will have to be separated from recyclable paper and plastics, and more kinds of plastics -- including plastic cups and deli containers, but not foam -- will become recyclable.

The new collection contracts will expand the city's Dumpster-Free Alley plan, which is designed to cut illegal activity around trash bins and reduce waste in alleys and business areas.

Sixty percent of the collection trucks will run on a bio-diesel blend, and 40 percent will run on compressed natural gas, expected to dramatically reduce pollutants.

Conlin said the new contracts also will increase organics recycling in multifamily and commercial buildings, and give Seattleites more options for recycling used electronics, used motor oil and batteries.

The contracts with Waste Management Inc. and CleanScrapes last through March 2019.